On Wednesday, ESPN published a long piece on field/court storming ahead of Vanderbilt's home game with No. 1 Auburn in men's basketball. The timing was anything but coincidental: amid a season that's seen Vandy's football team and both basketball teams reach the AP Top 25, the Commodores have paid out nearly a million dollars to league rivals as repeat offenders of the SEC's policy against field/court storming.
As the piece details, Vanderbilt was attempting to split the difference by asking its students to wait one minute to allow players to leave the court before descending upon the playing surface. We'll never know if that plan would've succeeded: Auburn won the game, 80-68.
The piece spoke to a number of officials across college sports, and one idea struck out as so bold and so harsh that it just might work.
"I truly believe it -- if we said that the home team, if they storm the field or the court, they're going to lose that game right then and there, that will stop it," Alabama AD Greg Byrne said.
Field/court storming is a tricky issue within college sports. It's only a matter of time until an athlete and/or a student is seriously injured or worse -- frankly, it's a small miracle that something really, really bad hasn't already happened. You'll never hear a commissioner, president, AD or coach come out and say, "I think field/court storming is good and we shouldn't do anything about it."
At the same time... we kinda like it. Here's a 24-minute montage of field stormings from the 2024 college football season alone. Notice how many times the TV director pans to a wide shot to capture each and every student rushing the grass, and how often the announcer relishes throwing it down to the sideline reporter as he or she is surrounded by delirious patrons. If one fan storms the field all by himself, policy within the industry dictates that he does not end up on camera and the announcers don't mention him, in an effort to deny the attention-seeker his reward and discourage copycats. But if 5,000 fans rush the field together? Watch for yourself.
The chaos of field/court storming is part of the fabric of college sports. How many times have you watched The Play? Is the number 400 or 500?
More immediately, field/court storming is a tricky issue because no athletics department wants to create an adversarial relationship with their own student body. Trotting out state troopers to police your own students as your team polishes off a victory over a top-10 team.
"I think that's a tough proposition," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said of the Alabama AD's idea instant forfeit idea. "I do think there's more than Greg in this league who feel that way, though."
The SEC currently has the harshest penalties for field/court storming in college athletics: a $100,000 fine for the first offense, $250,000 for a second offense, and $500,000 for each offense beyond that. For stormings that occur in SEC games, the money is paid directly to the visiting institution. The policy only applies when players, coaches and officials are present on the playing surface, so Vanderbilt's "wait a minute" plan would not have triggered a fine.
At the same time, look at how many field stormings in the video above happened after SEC games. Alabama lost three football games in the 2024 regular season -- all SEC road games, and the field was rushed all three times. Recall what Mike Ehrmentraut said about half measures.
"I understand why it may prompt the university to put in additional measures to keep students from storming the court," Vanderbilt student Justin Badt told ESPN, "but I'd say it doesn't deter the students themselves."
Ultimately, I think Byrne's instant-forfeit idea is crazy enough that it would actually work. Field storming is a social act -- Johnny rushes the field because Tommy is doing it, and Tommy rushes because Johnny is doing it. There may be a punishment involved, but isn't paid by those breaking the rules. Sure, something bad may happen, but not here and not this time. How could it? We just beat Alabama! Look at how happy we all are!
A social problem has to have a social solution. Who wants the scorn of costing their school a monumental win? The first guy on the field or court -- it would be a guy -- would become Public Enemy No. 1 within his own student body and, worse for his immediate safety, to his own football or basketball team. Who wants to be that guy?
Yes, I can hear your objections. It's difficult if not impossible to get 100 percent compliance among college students, especially in the raucous atmosphere of a student section during what's probably a tense football or basketball game. If 19,900 students follow the rules, it's not fair to punish the entire university because of the 100 idiots who don't.
And those objections are probably right. This is not a fool-proof plan. Some team would probably have to give back a win they earned because of a couple moronic fans. But that inevitability is better than the alternative that would stop stormings for good: a serious injury to a player or spectator.